It's easier to stop a pandemic before it starts than to fix it once it's out of control.
It's easier to protect a species than bring it back from the edge of extinction.
It's easier to re-tool the economy for clean energy before climate disasters start striking.

It's easier to keep chemicals out of the water than it is to remove them once they are in.
It's easier to make sure every child has their basic needs meet than it is to manage a society of grown-ups whose needs weren't met as children.

We demand environmental protections and human rights and taking care of the vulnerable because that is basic ethics, but it's not lost on us that each of these is also just deeply practical, and frugal, and actually efficient.